


Looking and Still Leaping

by thinlizzy2



Category: New Mutants, X-Factor (Comics)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-24
Updated: 2012-08-24
Packaged: 2017-11-12 18:30:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/494322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinlizzy2/pseuds/thinlizzy2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They're new lovers who happen to also be old friends.  Or possibly the other way around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Looking and Still Leaping

**Author's Note:**

  * For [karrenia_rune](https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/gifts).



They had one final hug before Sam and Danielle climbed into the car. Dani watched as the figures in the rear-view mirror - Rictor and Shatterstar fumbling with the keys and Chinese food leftovers, Rahne holding her son on her shoulders so he could wave bye-bye - grew smaller and smaller. She waved back until they disappeared, then leaned forward and started to fiddle with the radio. 

Sam drummed along on the steering wheel. “The kid’s cute, huh?”

“Yeah. He looks a lot like Rahne when she’s wolfy, don’t you think?” Dani hit on a station playing something with twangy guitars and twangier voices. She would have normally kept looking for something else, but Sam started whistling the tune so she left it alone.

“Hey”, Sam was obviously trying to sound offhand and she could see the shy country-boy in him warring a bit with the universal human need to gossip about old friends. “You think the three of them are...?”

“You mean Ric, Rahne and ‘Star?” To be honest, she’d been wondering the same thing. It hadn’t surprised her at all when Rictor and Shatterstar had held hands on their walk, but the casual kiss Rahne had given ‘Star when he’d retrieved little Tiergaard’s runaway balloon had been rather unexpected. “Knowing Rahne, I’d say probably not. But I don’t really know. Maybe.” Sam blushed a fairly adorable shade of red and Dani couldn’t resist teasing him a little. She pulled out her cell. “Do you want me to call her and ask her? I could say you were just curious.”

Without taking his eyes off the road, Sam wrested the phone from her and tossed it into the back seat. “Nope, Chief. Definitely not.”

She laughed and patted the inside of his thigh a couple of times. Then she left her hand sitting there. Being able to just touch Sam this way was still a new thrill and she couldn’t resist savoring it for a little while. She reflected on other delightful new experiences with Sam: the appreciative noises he made when he ate the breakfasts that she prepared, the smell of his aftershave lingering in her bathroom, waking up with his arm tucked around her as the early sunrise caught on its fine golden hairs.

Then a squirrel darted in front of them and Sam had to hit the brake, dislodging her. Dani tucked her hand back into her own lap. 

“It’s weird to think that one of us - you know, New Mutants 1.0 - has one of those, isn’t it?” 

Dani looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “A threesome?”

He slapped her playfully on the knee. “A _child_. Come on, aren’t we all supposed to be in bed by ten tonight because we’ve got dance class with Stevie first thing tomorrow morning?”

“Ah, to see you in a leotard again.” They chuckled together. “I guess it is weird, though I always kind of figured Rahne would be the first.”

“Mmm. You think she’ll be okay with him? The kid, I mean.” 

Dani would have loved to be able to say yes, but all things considered she really had no idea. Her honorary baby sister had been through hell in the last few years and she really had no idea if Rahne was mature enough to be a good parent or not. “Again, I’d say maybe. I really hope so.”

“You ever think about having kids, Dani?”

Just a few months ago, that wouldn’t have been nearly as loaded a question. It would simply have been one old friend asking another about abstract future plans, as distant and unimportant as enquiring if she ever intended to take up bungee jumping. Now it was her boyfriend, the oldest of nearly a dozen kids himself, asking her whether or not she wanted to be a mother. Not sure what sort of response was called for, Dani figured she might as well just go with being honest.

“I’m not sure. I mean, they’re cute and all. I _like_ kids. Working with them at the school was really amazing. But look at how we live. Kids shouldn’t have to wonder if their parents are late because they’re picking up pizza or if the latest nightmare to crawl out of the pits has got them instead. Children need stability, and the list of people we can trust seems to change every day what with everything that’s been going on. And we’ve - _I’ve_ \- got some pretty long-standing enemies at this point. Why give them extra ammunition to use against me, right?”

She cut herself off, all too aware that she’d been rambling. She glanced at Sam, not sure if he’d be nodding along or completely zoned-out, and found that he was neither. Rather, he was scratching at his knuckles the way he always did when he was upset and his jaw was clenched so hard it looked like he was doing a Scott Summers impression. 

“Sam, you okay?”

“Sure. No problem.”

Well, she knew bullshit when she heard it. Should she change the subject? Talk about the crazy weather lately or something? Fuck it. “Hey Sam? Do _you_ want kids?”

He clicked his tongue and smiled ruefully at her. “I did until about three minutes ago.”

She laughed wryly. “I put you off them, huh?”

“Nope.” Sam shook his head. “I still think the good stuff about being a dad would outweigh all that. But I ain’t never been able to talk you into doing anything that you didn’t want to do, and by now I know better than to try. And having you around is a heck of a lot more important than any babies would be. It’ll be okay.” He jerked his thumb back towards Mutant Town. “I’m already an honorary uncle, after all.”

She stared at him, stunned. “Sam, are you honestly saying you see us together in the future? I mean, _permanently?_ ”

He shrugged. “‘Course I do. What, you think I’m gonna let you go now that I’ve finally got you?”

Finally had her? Like he’d been waiting around patiently for the last few years of their lives rather than dating blonde bombshells and intergalactic rock stars? “Sam... I’m not kidding.” Oh, she was breaking every single piece of advice she’d ever encountered on how _not_ to send a guy running for the hills, but where had that ever gotten her anyway? “Are you saying you want this to be serious?”

It seemed to take him a long time to answer and when he did, his voice was unusually quiet. “Dani, I don’t wanna make any promises I can’t keep - not to you. Don’t want you doing that with me either; I know Nate’s still sniffing around you.” He held up a hand to still her oncoming protest. “I trust you, Dani; it’s not about that. It’s just that I can’t see the future and like you said: look at how we live. But when I look back at my life, most of the really important stuff? You’ve been there for. And those few times that you weren’t, it was like there was a hole beside me.” He shot her a quick nervous glance, then returned his focus to the road. “I need you around, Chief; things just mean more when we’re together. Don’t you know that?”

“Stop the car, Sam.” It was a struggle to keep her voice steady.

He winced. “You pissed? Too much all at once, huh?”

“Stop the car.”

She had her seatbelt already half undone by the time he signalled to pull over. As soon as the emergency brake was up, she swung her leg over it, climbing onto his lap. Straddling his legs, she plunged her mouth down, cheering inside when his lips opened enthusiastically under hers. She slid her tongue inside, savoring the taste of him. His hands came up behind her, gripping her waist and pulling her closer. He was getting hard; she could feel it against her stomach. It still amazed her that this was Sam - _Sam Guthrie_ \- and she could do this to him now.

They could do this to each other.

They weren’t about to get up to much sitting on the side of a public road, so they let things wind down slowly. Dani rubbed her cheek against Sam’s, relishing the scratch of his stubble against her skin, and then climbed back into her own seat. She buckled her seatbelt demurely, fiddling with the clip so he wouldn’t see her triumphant smile. 

Sam exhaled loudly. “Yeah, I was right. Who needs kids?”

She laughed as he pulled back onto the road. “I didn’t say no, you know?”

She can sense his face lighting up without even looking. “Oh yeah. Guess you didn’t.”

“We can talk it over.” She put her hand back on his leg. “We’ve got all the time in the world.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks very much to Ty for the beta job!


End file.
